User:FloNight/Marietta Kies

Marietta Kies (December 31, 1853-July 20, 1899) was a late nineteenth century American philosopher and academic. Kies had faculty positions at the college and university levels in the late nineteenth century, relatively unusual for a women in that era. Kies held positions at Colorado College (1882-84), Mt. Holyoke Seminary (1885-91), Mills College (1891-92), and Butler University (1896-99).

Family
Marietta Kies was born Dec. 31, 1853 on a farm in the town of Killingly, Connecticut to William Knight Kies and Miranda (Young) Kies. She was the second child of five children, all daughters.

Education
Kies studied with William Torrey Harris in 1882 at his Concord School of Philosophy and Literature. Harris advocated for women to have access to higher education, and the right to equal employment and political participation. Kies first book, An Introduction to the Study of Philosophy (1889) was a compilation of his essays and lectures. On Harris' recommendation, Kies attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. At Michigan, Kies studied under three men with progressive leanings in regard to women in academia, John Dewey; George Sylvester Morris; and Henry Carter Adams.

Philosophical thinking
Kies was a member of the early Hegelian movement and the Christian Socialist movement. According to Dorothy Rogers, Kies' built on Hegel's philosophy and developed a political theory of altruism. She "anticipated the late twentieth-century feminist 'ethic of care'." Kies argued that the “feminine” ideals expressed in political thinking are rational not emotional responses, and make for a sound basis for public discourse. Kies published two philosophical works, advance a theory of altruism; The Ethical Principle and its Application in State Relations (1892) and Institutional Ethics (1894). Both books were reviewed in The Philosophical Review.

Death and legacy
In 1899 Marietta Kies died of tuberculosis in Colorado.